Shark Week: A Feeding Frenzy for Citizen Scientists

This digest of SciStarter Weekly Featured Projects was curated by Jenna Lang.

That’s right–it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. It’s Shark Week, and SciStarter has a slew of projects for you to try out. Let’s see if you bite. Due to fascination or fear, the sight of a shark makes our hearts skip a beat. Thanks to these featured citizen science projects, that sight can also contribute to shark conservation!

Shark Count

Increasing protection for sharks requires information about local populations. Provide data about sharks you see while diving or snorkeling. Get started!

Sevengill Shark Sightings

The Shark Observation Network invites Southern California divers to report and submit sightings of Sevengill Sharks, a species whose numbers are seemingly on the rise in the waters off San Diego.

The Great Eggcase Hunt from Shark Trust
Hunt for empty eggcases that have been washed ashore to help researchers locate potential shark and ray nurseries. This generates important data for researchers and conservationists working with sharks, skates and rays around the world. Get started

New England Basking Shark Project

The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance invites boaters, fishermen, and divers to report and share sightings of basking sharks to help scientists monitor the local population and better understand their migration patterns.Get started!

ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification

Upload your own shark photos or identify sharks in existing photos using this visual database of whale sharks! Get started!

About Lily Bui (Editor)

Although she holds dual non-science bachelors’ degrees in International Studies and Spanish from the University of California Irvine, Lily has long harbored a proclivity for the sciences. A daughter of an engineer and an accountant who also happen to be a photographer and musician, respectively, Lily grew up on the nexus between science and art. Lily has worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; served a year in AmeriCorps in Montgomery County, Maryland; worked for a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter in California; and performed across the U.S. as a touring musician. She currently works with WGBH-TV Boston and Public Radio Exchange (PRX) in Cambridge. In her spare time, she thinks of cheesy science puns (mostly to entertain herself). // Tweets @dangerbui

Cooperation between professionals and citizen scientists to co-create scientific knowledge expands not only depth and breadth of discoveries, but also the very possibilities for discoveries. Citizen Sci bloggers will bring stories about innovative projects, methodologies, and histories to help chart the changing landscape of public participation in scientific research.